There is an increasing level of awareness concerning the emission of mercury and other contaminants from industrial plants such as cement manufacturing plants. Cement plants, for example, have a wide range of mercury inputs and resulting emissions because of the wide variety of raw materials and fuels used in the process. Some cement plants may not only need to reduce mercury emissions but also need to reduce alkali chlorides (which is used herein to mean both alkali chlorides, i.e. sodium chloride and potassium chloride, and sulfur chlorides) in the kiln system to reduce build-up problems in the preheater tower or to lower the alkali chloride content of the clinker to meet product quality standards.
Consequently, there is a need to cost effectively control both mercury emissions and reduce the alkali chlorides in an industrial kiln system, which is the object of the present invention.